7 reasons diner burgers are better than fancy burgers

I’m a diner burger romantic. The best burger I ever ate cost just $3.75 at a 24-hour Dallas greasy spoon, a block from Baylor hospital near a deserted downtown. It was 4am on a Wednesday morning. I’d recently decided I was going to write for a living even though I’d never written professionally, studied writing, written for pleasure or written out of a compulsion to write. Awareness that you’re flushing your life down the toilet can make sleep difficult, so laying in bed I’d decided to embrace my nitwit career choice and start doing writer things, right away. As I sat alone surveying the sparsely populated alt universe of shift workers and down-and-outs, one thought dominated my mind: “Oh my god, this burger is so *$@*&#! good. Being a writer really is the best.” These days appreciation for the diner burger is on the wane thanks to the rise of the It Burger, and the decade-long explosion of quality dining options that aren’t diners. Here’s why that needs to change: